Blower for horns.



G.A.ARNOLD.

MOWER FOR HORNS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.31, I917.

Patented Oct. 29, 1918 3 nvawfo a 2 SHEETS-SHEET 9513 attozwu idim 55R m: Alumna PINK ca rnmu'ma, \vAsnlNnYoN. a c

psi swans artisan orato GEORGE ARNOLD, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO FREDERICK C. HERSEE AND ONE-HALF TO SOLOMON A. CAMPBELL, BOTH OF WALTI-IAM, MASSACHUSETTS.

BLOWER FOR HORNS.

Application filed March 31, 191?.

To all whom it may, concern Be it known that I, GEORGE A. ARNOLD, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Blowers for Horns, of which the following is a specification.

In my prior Patent No. 1,192,598, issued July 5, 1916, I have disclosed and claimed a new type of automobile horn in which the reciprocation of a piston within a cylinder causes the delivery of air, first through one and then through the other of two conduits communicating with the cylinder at opposite ends and inclosing or delivering to one or more sound producing devices. The separate conduits deliver the sound in the same general direction and the piston is preferably operated by a lever pivoted intermediate of its ends on a bracket carried by the cylinder and having one end connected to the piston and the other end serving as a handle.

My present invention involves certain im provements in the details of construction and arrangement of parts of the form of horn illustrated in said prior patent, and the main objects of these improvements are to simplify the construction; reduce the'cost of manufacturing and assembling the parts; make the device more compact, thereby reducing the liability of accidental injury; reduce the wear; and increase the life of the instrument.

A further important feature involves a novel form of bracket whereby the horn may be easily secured in position and may be adjusted in respect to the supporting surface.

In the accompanying drawings, to which reference is to be had, I have illustrated an embodiment of my invention, which embodiment will be described in detail, but I wish it understood that various features may be altered or changed within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of my invention and that. certain of the features may be omitted or replaced by substitutes without materially reducing the value of other features.

In these drawings,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a horn Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 29, 1916..

Serial No. 158,806.

constructed in accordance with my inventlon, certaln of the parts belng broken away;

Fig. 2 is a central horizontal section on the line 22 of Fig. 1 and on a somewhat larger scale;

Figs. 3, 4: and 5 are sections on the lines 3-8, 4-4:, and 55, respectively, of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a partial horizontal section on the line 66 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a transverse section on the line 77 of Fig. 5; and

Fig. 8 is a side elevation on a smaller scale showing a simpler form of piston operating member.

In the specific form illustrated, the cylinder is formed of a drawn sheet metal cup having a peripheral wall 10 constituting the cylinder proper and an end wall '11 integral therewith and forming one cylinder head. The opposite cylinder head 12 is preferably in the form of a circular plate with a peripheral flange telescoping with the peripheral wall 10 and secured thereto in any suitable manner, preferably by screws as shown particularly in Figs. 3, 5 and 8. Within the cylinder is my improved form of piston 13. This includes a collar or sleeve 14 secured to the piston rod in any suitable manner as, for instance, by means of a set screw 15.

The collar carries two annularplates 16, 16, which are spaced apart and held rigid in respect to each other by said collar. Preferably, the end portions of the collar are reduced in diameter and extend through central apertures in the plates 16 and are upset at their outer ends by riveting, swaging or otherwise, to hold the three parts rigid in respect to each other. Between the two plates 16 is a split spring ring 17 of a diameter slightly less than that of the set plates 16. The ring is free tofloat readily but is held against axial movement by its engagement with said plates. Outside of and encircling the spring ring 17 is an annular washer 18 preferably of compressible material such, for instance, as felt. This washer or gasket is also of a width substantially equal to the distance between the plates 16, 16 and is pressed outwardly against the cylinder wall by the spring ring 17. The ring being free to expand, will hold the gasket in place and maintain the proper engagement withthe latter and with the cylinder walls, even though the gasket become considerably worn.

The gasket need not be of a continuous annular piece, but may be made of a stralght strip cut to the proper length, thickness and width, and inserted with beveled ends overlapping, as is shown in Fig. 3.

This form of piston is inexpensive to man ufacture, easy to assemble and very durable in service. The piston rod 19, to which the piston is secured, may extend through metal bushings or guiding sleeves 20 in both, or only one end, of the cylinder, and between the piston and the cylinder ends the piston rod may carry annular felt washers 21, or other devices to act as bumpers and prevent the piston from being forced violently into engagement with the cylinder heads.

For operating the piston, I provide mechanism of the same general character as that shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of my patent above referred to. As an improvement over the construction there shown, I mount on the cylinder head 12, two stamped metal arms 22, 22, each having its base constituting a supporting lug as shown particularly in Fig.

6. The operating lever 28 has two similar collars 24 and 25 mounted thereon, each collar being formed of a piece of sheet metal bent to provide a rod encircling portion and two spaced, parallel ears or lugs as shown particularly in Fig. 2. The spaced ears or lugs of the lower sleeve 25 receive between it, and are pivotally secured to, the flattened end of the piston rod 19. The two spaced ears of the upper sleeve 24 are received between the spaced ends of the two arms 22, 22 and receive between them a washer or spacing member 26 having a projection extending into a recess in the rod 23, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. A single pivot screw or rivet extends through the parts to form a pivotal connection.

The spacing member 26, by its engagement with the rod 23, prevents any endwise movement of said rod through the collar 2st, but the rod may freely slide through the collar 25 and the latter may turn in respect to the piston rod as the angle of the operating lever varies in moving the piston back and forth. It is of course evident that the piston rod may be held against movement in the sleeve 25 and may be free to slide through sleeve 24 if desired, but this is not a preferable construction.

The two collars 2 1 and 25 may be identical in construction and interchangeable so as to reduce the number of different kinds of parts to be manufactured and the number of different dies required.

As in the construction shown in my prior patent, I provide two air conduits 27 and 28 extending in the same general direction and communicating with two air compression chambers on opposite sides of the piston. Each of these conduits incloses a reed or other sound producing element and delivers to a single or to two separate resonators 29 and 30. i

As an important feature of my present i11- vention, I extend one of the conduits lengthwise through the cylinder instead of extending it along the exterior thereof as in my prior construction. As shown, the conduit 28 extends through the cylinder head 11 and is rigidly secured to the latter by solder or other suitable connecting means and terminates'in engagement with the opposite cylinder head 12.

The conduit itself may serve as the sole means for holding the cylinder head 12 to the cylinder. Its end adjacent to the cylinder head 12 is shown as being closed by a plug 31 which may be soldered in place and a screw 32 may extend through the cylinder head 12 into this plug to hold the parts rigid in respect to each other. Adjacent to the plug 21, the conduit is provided with an air inlet aperture .33 through which the air may escape from the compression space into the conduit when the piston is drawn back. The conduit itself extends through registering aperturesin the two piston plates 16, 16, and between said plates is encircled by a close fitting felt washer Or other form of gasket 34 which prevents the free passage of air from one side of the piston to the other along said conduit.

By means of this construction, the conduit serves to hold the cylinder head 12 in place; it guides the piston and avoids the necessity of having the piston rod extend through cylinder head 11; it is protected within the cylinder so that it is less liable to be injured from accidental blows; it presents a more artistic appearance with the two conduits symmetrically arranged at the same end of the cylinder; and it reduces the number of exposed parts whereby finishing, polishing and cleaning is facilitated.

For admitting air to the compression spaces at the opposite sides of the piston and preventing the escape of air from said spaces except through the conduits 27 and 28, any suitable form of air valves may be employed. Preferably, these are in the form of flexible flaps 35 which may hang over the air inlet ports 36 and 37. The flaps may be secured in position in any suitable manner as, for instance, by a narrow metal clip 38 having lts ends secured by rivets or in any other sultable manner to the cyhnderhead.

-The ports may be protected by suitable guards to prevent any danger of foreign objects coming in contact with the valve. As shown, the cylinder head 11 is provided with a stamped sheet metal cover plate 39 open at the bottom forthe admission of air and held in place partly by the same rivets that holdthe valve retaining clip on the opposite side of the cylinder head. The necessity for a separate guard for the inlet port in the piston head 12 may be avoided by the special formation of bracket hereinafter described.

As an important feature of my improved construction, I have provided a novel form of bracket, whereby the horn may be easily attached to or removed from a supporting surface. As shown, this bracket includes a strip of metal 41, the terminal portions of which may be offset downwardly to a slight extent so as to lie in the same plane to hold the intermediate portion at a slightly higher plane than that of the supporting surface. The two ends of the cylinder carry sheet metal brackets 42 and 43 riveted, or otherwise secured in place, and terminating in flanges extending toward each other in the same plane and adapted to rest upon the base strip 41. The two base flanges have apertures therethrough for receiving clamping screws 44 threaded into apertures in the base strip 41.

From the screw receiving opening of one of the base flanges, for instance that of the bracket 42, a slot extends lengthwise as in dicated in dotted lines at the.left of the piston in Fig. 2. From the screw receiving opening of the base flange of the other bracket, the slot extends transversely, as shown in dotted lines at the right hand side of the piston in Fig. 2. The base strip 41 u may first be secured to a supporting surface by suitable screws or bolts extending through the end portions thereof and the clamping screws 44 may be loosely screwed into the apertures of the body portion of the strip. The horn carrying the two brackets 42 and 43 may then be brought into position by moving it in the direction of its length until the clamping screw 44 has properly entered the slot of the bracket 42 and the horn may then be swung laterally about this clamping screw as a pivot, while the other clamping screw enters the transverse slot. Upon tightening the two screws 44, the horn may be held in position and extend in the same general direction as the base strip 41, or it may be aimed at a considerable angle in respect to this general direction.

The horn may be very readily taken off, leaving the base strip 41 on the car and in attaching the horn to a car, the operating parts of the horn, being removable from the base strip, do not interfere with the free use of any suitable tools for the securing of the said base strip in position.

I have described the construction in detail, but I do not thereby desire to imply that all of these various details are essential. Various features may be altered without interfering with the proper operation or advantages of other features, or certain features may be omitted entirely, or replaced by those shown in my prior patent.

I have illustrated the bracket 42 as having a portion bent outwardly and spaced from the wall 12 so as to form a cover for the inlet port 36 and permit the air to pass upwardly to said port from beneath the horn. This bracket 42 might be flat with an aperture registering with the port 36 and a cover similar to the cover 39, secured to the outer surface of the bracket 42. In some constructions, I have employed all. of the features hereinbefore described with the exception of the particular mechanism for reciprocating the piston rod. In Fig. 8, I have illustrated a construction substantially identical with that hereinbefore described with the exception that the rear end of the piston rod 19 is provided with a knob 46 which may be grasped in the hand to force the piston rod back and forth.

I have not shown the reeds or other sound producing members in the conduits 27 and 28 as these may be of any suitable construction. They may be designed to both produce the same sound or may differ in construction so as to produce one sound when the piston is moved in one direction and a different sound when it is moved in the opposite direction.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In an automobile horn, the combination of an air compression cylinder, a piston mounted to reciprocate therein, and a pair of air delivery tubes, one of said tubes extending outwardly from one end of the cylinder and the other extending through the same end and lengthwise of the cylinder within the latter to a, point adjacent the opposite end.

2. In an automobile horn, the combination of an air compression cylinder, a piston mounted to reciprocate therein, and a pair of air delivery tubes, one of said tubes extending outwardly fromv one end of the cylinder and the other extending through the same end and lengthwise of the cylinder within the latter to the opposite end and secured to the latter.

3. In a signaling device, the combination of an air compression cylinder having a removable cylinder head and an air delivery conduit extending lengthwise through said cylinder at one side of the axis thereof and detachably secured to said cylinder head and having an air port through the wall thereof closely adjacent to said cylinder head.

4. In a signaling device, the combination of a cylinder member, an air delivery tube secured to one end thereof and extending outwardly therefrom, a second air delivery tube extending lengthwise through said cylinder and projecting from said end, and a piston Within said cylinder and having an opening through which said last mentioned tube extends.

5. In a signaling device, the combination of a cylinder, a piston rod, a piston secured thereto and disposed within said cylinder and having an aperture therethrough at one side of said piston rod, and a delivery conduit secured to the opposite ends of said cylinder and extending through said aperture.

6. In a signaling device, the combination of a cylinder, a piston rod, a piston secured 7. In a pneumatic signaling device, the

-MI' r. Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

combination of acylinder, a pair of air delivery conduits projecting from one cylinder end, one of said conduits projecting lengthwise through said cylinder to the opposite end, a piston rod, a piston within said said cylinder, and to one of said sleeves and holding said rod against cndwise movement in respect to the sleeve, and means for connecting the other of said sleeves to said piston rod and permitting sliding movement of the sleeve on the lever.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York, and State of New York, this day of March, A. D. 1917.

GEORGE A. ARNOLD.

Washington, .D. G. 

